Newtown service cites Martin Luther King's legacy (photos)

Newtown Congregational Church held a Service of Hope and Healing. Rev.James Forbes (retired Riverside Church, NYC) of the Healing of the Nations Foundation, in TV monitor left, was the featured speaker. Mara Lavitt/New Haven Register1/20/13

NEWTOWN -- A New York City minister who experienced the 911 attacks and the civil rights struggle with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. told the Newtown community Sunday that the victims of the school shooting here can be "the founders of a new America."

The Rev. Dr. James Forbes Jr., minister emeritus of New York's Riverside Church, was the keynote speaker at a "service for hope and healing" at Newtown Congregational Church.

Forbes is also founder and president of the Healing of the Nations Foundation, which tries to broaden awareness of connections between physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health.

The service was attended by some of the first responders to the Dec. 14 shootings, and perhaps by some of the victims' families.

The Rev. Matt Crebbin, minister of the Newtown Congregational Church, said it was fiting the event was held while the nation is celebrating King's birthday and inaugurating President Barack Obama for a second term.

Crebbin said that one month after "an event of unfathomable violence sent waves of shock through this community and throughout the world ... now, more than ever, the life and legacy of Martin Luther King reminds us of the kind of journey to which we are called."

He said this journey "affirms that love and not fear shall have the final say."

Crebbin and Forbes referred to the bombing of King's church in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four young girls.

Forbes said, "The saddest face I ever saw on Martin Luther King was at the funeral of those four little girls. So he understood very well what the families are going through here."

Forbes noted King worked for nonviolence as well as racial equality. "He said, 'Let's work toward a nonviolent world.' Dr. King's words are needed now more than ever before."

Forbes added, "I think this year we'll pay more attention to Dr. King than ever before because of the series of violent events we've been through."

Recalling his marches and arrests during the civil rights protests in the South, Forbes said, "Things can change, folks! After the bloodshed, the dogs, the hoses, the Supreme Court decisions, things are not perfect. But we've made progress."

He added, "We have seen that violence can strike anywhere. It leaves our hearts naked, vulnerable, exposed."

But then Forbes asked, "What if, 30 years from now, history would record that something happened in Newtown that led to a new America?"

He said the shootings can mark the beginning of a time "when things began to be dealt with."

"Already we're discussing violence, gun violence," he noted. "Already we're hearing out of Washington executive orders. And Congress has to do something out of Joe Biden's list of proposals."

"They did not die in vain," he reassured the audience. "They're too precious to have died in vain."

The service closed with the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome." But earlier the audience sang the hymn "When Aimless Violence Takes Those We Love."

However, local musician Jim Allyn led a group of Newtown children in singing a song he recently wrote, "My Beautiful Town." It drew a standing ovation.